The Portland daily press., 1887-08-08
Texas and ProhIbItlon.

The prohibitionists have undoubtedly met
severe defeat in Texas. But the question
Is by no means settled, as some Of the oppo.-
nents OF the constitutional amendment 20
hoped that 1t would be by a single-,SfEa atarloo
The dispatches from Texsss disclose The
pre- sence IN lnaI npSslrFof agencies that are as
peieis'ens an" "eas able as the organizations of
nquoi r-~fers and liquor sellers. In Calves
.ne metropolis of Texas-"a State where
snerto men have controlled the ballot" is
the indignant comment Of an anti-prohibi-
tionist-the surprising spectacle of women
working at the polls was first observed
"Our women, whose place has always been
at the freside," so wrote a correspondent OF
a New York paper from Galveston. on the
night after the election, ''were today at the
polls endeayoring to exercise popular suf-
frage. And these women were not the short
haired crusaders, who have been abused
from the stump of Texas for the past several
months, but Galveston's own fair ladies',
wives of prohibition enthusiasts, who trieu
to transform the pollingiplaces into picnic
grounds by establishing around them re-
freshment booths, where temperance drinks
and viands were served in lavish proportions
to the hungry and thirsty voters under cano-
pies laden with matters and appeals" These
tactics were as new to the Texans as were
the cavalry charges of Coronado's Spanish
horse to those other most conservative Texy
ans who first saw European explorers. The
aborigines in time became familiar with the
cavalryman; and thereiis no doubt that be-
fore the question is settled the ''antis'' of
Ta1roc mil lyro H..
now about the vigor and determination with
which the Woman's Christian Temperance
Union fights its battles. The tactics that
created SO much surprise are familiar in
Maine, Rhode Island, Atlanta, Kansas
every place where a pitched temperance bat
tie has been fought. In Galveston prohi-
bition was badly defeated in spite of its al
lies, but this will not prevent renewal OF
the fight both at Galveston and everywhere
else in Texas. The attempt to make prohi-
bition feature of the State constitution has
failed; but this will not prevent carrying the
question to the Legislature. State prohibi-
tion without constitutional mandate is possi-
BILE through the legislature, and Texas al
ready has law for local option by counties
under which twenty counties are already
dry" The Democratic machine of Texas
may rest assured that it has on its hands a
fight that will give it no rest.
In Missouri. State that bears a reputa-
tion somewhat like that of Texas, consti-
tutional measure would probably fail sig
nally, but this does not prevent an unceas-
ing and successful local agitation. Only
two days before the voting at Galveston
hundred members of the Missouri Woman's
Christian Temperance Union with auxilia-
ries from the Band Of Hope marched into
the county court house of st. Francois coun-
ty with an Influential petition for an election
under the local option law. The same day
the county court of Sullivan county acceded
TO similar petition and ordered an election.
That day also at Richmond, in Ray county,
where an election had already been ordered
an immense mass meeting of colored people
were exhorted to vote for prohibition by their
colored pastors, while the white women
made their arrangementsfor the free lunches
at the polls on election day That day, too
the prohibitionists Of Pettis county rallied
force at the county court house to urge
the court TO deny license to a saloon keep
er; ana that evening the ladies of Maryville
paraded the streets with banners to celebrate
a local option victory in the city, and arouse
enthusiasm Tor the local option election in the
rest of Nodoway county which was vet
week distant The same evening this des-
patch was sent from Poplar Bluff to the St
Louis Globe Democrat: 'Within the next
twenty-four hours Poplar Bluff will be dry
town so far as the sale of intoxicating liquors
is concerned" This is the record of one
day in Missouri. The st. Louis papers
chronicled the events, but they were not con-
sidered Of enough Importance to send much
beyond the limits of the State, so common
have such events become in Missouri.
In Texas, the attempt to carry the reform
all at once will probably be succeeded by a
more successful effort to capture the State by
counties or by towns. There seems no rea-
son, so far certainly, to believe that the de-
teat OF Thursday will be final defeat to the
prohibltionists.